AfDB President to attend Tanzania power launchBy SANDRA CHAO in Nairobi | Wednesday, June 26 2013 at 16:53
African Development Bank (AfDB) President Donald Kaberuka is set to visit Tanzania over the weekend to attend the launch of the Power Africa initiative.
Dr Kaberuka is expected to meet US President Barrack Obama who is set to unveil the new plan for the distribution of electricity throughout the continent.
In a press statement, AfDB said that the Power Africa project was a multi-stakeholder partnership involving the US government, the private sector and six African countries.
Power Africa will target economic growth and development by increasing access to reliable, affordable and sustainable electricity in the region.
Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria and Liberia have been identified as priority countries and will be the first in which the project is initiated.
According to the world energy outlook 2012 57 per cent of Africa's population does not have access to modern energy services with 590 million people said not have access to electricity.
The outlook projected that the number of people without access to electricity in the region would have increased by 11 per cent to 655 million by 2030.
The project is also expected to increase cross-border energy trade and promote transparent management of energy resources.
So far, AfDB has committed more than $1.63 billion in energy infrastructure funding to the six "Power Africa" priority countries over the past five years.
Among the investments is the Lake Turkana wind power project that will establish power trade between Ethiopia and Kenya as well as the greater east African region.
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